Lluc is 7 years old, and has a lot of reasons to boast about his mum. Núria Serrano is Minipop‘s manager, a little great festival designed for the family, where adults, youngsters, uncles and aunts will find a place where all can have good fun together. Music, funfair, workshops… the perfect blend of culture and good vibes, created by the Associació de Mares Tecletes (Mother’s Association), working successfully on very emblematic Tarragona spots, while drawing more and more participants on its way to its 3rd edition, a huge achievement in these times. “The festival draws people’s interest because it is useful, since it’s born from a shared necessity among parents. Children are rewarding, but also very demanding. All of a sudden, you realise you’re being left on your own, that you’re growing apart from other people…” she says. Against isolation, Minipop!
Budget is not the Festival’s strength, but the people behind it. Very lively people like Núria, Noe, Ivan or Marga, and up to fifteen people ready to provide the Festival with their professional abilities and initiative –they’re designers, musicians, architectures and journalists– at the service of a project aiming to become something else than a mere set of activities. Minipop is a great sort of display window for the Tecletes, an association which intents to enjoy motherhood “in an active, funny and shared way”. And that is exactly where all the shows, workshops, performances and educational activities are aiming at.
Great European festivals, such as the London Hyde Park concerts, or the Barcelona Sonar, are definitely betting on complementary spaces where a great age range is welcome, and that are suitable for all sorts of family creative experiences. Minipop has drawn inspiration from the actual success of these projects while polishing and refining them. A great part of the ideas giving shape to the festival emerge randomly throughout the year from Nuria’s mind, and also her partner’s, the musician Lluís Gavaldà, assisting her on programming issues. Both of them carry entertainment in their veins: Lluís, as singer and composer of Els Pets (a immensely known Catalan music band), with a 30-year artistic career on his back; and Núria, also with an extensive experience, but this time behind the scenes.
Every Saturday, the Rambla of Tarragona is crowded with old and young people, couples with or without kids… But only Minipop guarantees party for everyone next weekend at the Passeig de les Palmeres and the Serrallo, two privilege spots, kissed by the sunlight and the Mediterranean breeze.
“Having babies does not entitle anyone to be boring, to get stuck in monotony. We are suggesting activities everyone will love. Minipop is much more than this though: it is a meeting point for people, sometimes very different from each other, as in Festes Majors (local festivities)”, explains Núria Serrano, with an emotional awareness that the festival is capable of ripping off social restraints, and that, little by little, is drawing more and more attention. “Setting all this up is a huge task, but we end up feeling as tired as fulfilled. We connect with the audience, which is becoming more and more aware of the festival, which is our actual purpose, and so the Minipop network keeps on growing, getting bigger and bigger”. Just like Lluc does, more mature and more proud of his mother.
Text by Oriol Margalef
Translated by Artur Santos
Photograph, Rafael López-Monné
